. igor, back to more serious stuff we ought to be talking about. sojohnboehnerissaying hey we can have -- we can find some common ground here and republicans are quick to say yeah, let's follow the boehner thing. when you look at what boehner is saying about how to avoid the fiscal cliff he's not saying we're going to agree with president obama on anything yet right? >> not yet. at least publicly, he's just reheating the old romney proposal which is if you close deductions, that's where you get your revenue. not from letting the high end tax cuts expire. the high-end tax cuts expire. what obama had been campaigning on and what voters want overwhelmingly. so you know, the administration has actually been fairly optimistic about where boehner is and negotiating with boehner and negotiating maybe with some of the rank and file who are more likely to come to an agreement. maybe go into the senate. and doing this very publicly. they're meeting with a lot of groups with labor groups, with business groups and they've

to be revenues as well. second, he's rejecting the john boehnerapproachwhich is boehnersayingi'll agree to revenues as long as they come as a result of economic growth. in other words, we won't legislate changes in taxes. we'll hope that revenues go up. he's saying no, that won't work for me. you're not going to legislate spending cuts. this is the president talking. not legislate revenue changes as well. >> bill: all right. so there are -- the most immediate decision maybe facing the congress is that as you point out, all of the bush tax cuts expire. which means not only the taxes -- tax cuts for the wealthy expire, the tax cuts for those making under $250,000 a year expire as well. so the president said friday all right, the senate has already passed a bill which would give extended tax cutless for the 98%, those making under $250,000. but let the ones for the wealthier people and defined as over $250,000 expire. and he challenged the house of representatives to pass that. what do you think -- so this is a real -- to

to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts.johnboehnerisasking to outline a plan and get fellow republicans on board. ryan will likely be under the most pressure to back away from his conservative politics. his run for vp no doubt brought him some new-found respect and political clout amongst his colleagues. they say they will confident they will be able to reach some sort of a deal by the engineer of the deal, they need to be at an impasse when it comes to taxes. they said any deal to reduce the deficit should come through pro-gross reforms. that means things like lowers rates, and closing loopholes. >> just to close loopholes is far too little money, and they have said they weren't it to be revenue neutral. the president has been very clear, that the higher-income people have to pay their fair share. >> that means no deal from the democrats if republicans will not agree to raise taxes on the wealthy, but pelosi says she is optimistic. more john coming up after the break. stay with us. ♪ created ad message for little caesars who proudly salutes unites

-brainer that even ajohnboehneror mitch mcconnell have to see they cannot survive politically and oppose that. >> eliot: one would hope so. this is one where you want the president to watch the days and watch and say i'm not moving. this is your fault. >> bill: right. then here's the latest wrinkle. i'm sure you saw yesterday some democrats now say that they're buying the mitt romney plan, if you will, of let's not raise tax rates. let's just close loopholes. right. can you get there -- two-fold question eliot. i hate to put you on the spot. one is what's wrong with raising tax rates and two can you get there just by closing loopholes? >> eliot: nothing and no. nothing wrong with raising the rates on the top folks including me including the president including -- >> bill: and me. >> eliot: this is what this campaign was about. the president spoke to it eloquently. bill clinton. every economic study. i wrote my editorial on my show the other night the congressional research service just came out with a study saying ther

connell andjohnboehner's peoplesort of drawing their lines in the sand. that's not really happening even though that is sort of by far much sort of bigger story as far as what's going to happen in the country. as far as -- and priority list for both the white house and congress. >> do you think they also get that at the white house? that as long as -- as much as they may be getting hurt or not by the islamist people are talking about benghazi, it enables some room for the white house to get involved in the negotiations as well. >> it allows them to negotiate this without sort of a spotlight on fiscal cliff story which is -- you know, a story that has about six weeks left in it before some -- before taxes go up on everyone and significant spending cuts happen across the country. not just the military. >> you've been covering the hill for awhile in addition to the campaigns. do you get the sense that this will be the time when they say okay, they've reached some agreement on the tax out on the revenue side and republicans eat i

is listening to their suggestions. up to this point house speaker johnboehnerissaying he will not accept any increases on tax rates. but some top republicans are quietly coming around. it is obvious after the election that republicans do not hold the mandate on taxes. while the g.o.p. still might not agree to a tax rate on those making more than $250,000 a year, if democrats demand a millionaire tax increase, it will be hard for republicans to say no. climate change actvilles are not feeling too optimistic after the president's news conference yesterday. advocates had been hoping the president would push for a carbon tax as a way to help raise revenue during talks on the fiscal cliff. while the president did say he is a official believe err -- firm believer in climate change and will take up the issue in the future. for now it will take a backseat to the economy. this is also an issue both parties avoided during the presidential campaign and even during energy talks, there was no mention of climate change